Tuesday, August 21, 2012

GenCon Indy Part II

What a week! GenCon Indy 2012 is in the history books and this year's may have been the best yet for me. Let's jump right in - shall we?

I arrived in Indianapolis early Wednesday afternoon and after an hour or two of getting things in order an EDH game was already in the works. The table was Adam Styborski, Brian David-Marshall, Trick Jarrett, David Williams, and Sheldon Menery. Sheldon was to my left, and as I pulled out my Heartless Hidetsugu to begin the game he glanced down at it.

"Oh, so this is damage, not life loss? Interesting..."

Turn four I'm able to play Heartless off a Mind Stone, bond with a Lightning Mauler and pass the turn. Play comes around the table and on Sheldon's endstep I activate Hidetsugu.

"I have a response." Sheldon says.

"Am I dead?" I reply, and this happens:

Take 100.

EDH is not about winning or losing, it's about the stories. This, for example, happened later in the day:

I know what fun is, and I enjoy it immensely.

That night I had the pleasure to roping some more of the WotC crew into cubing with my common/uncommon build.

In pack two, Brian was fairly amused by this four-card pack I passed him:

Uh. What?!

With one cube under my belt I couldn't help but start a Rotisserie draft after browsing the main convention Thursday morning. A Rotisserie takes place face up, wherein you draft from a pool containing one of every card in a set. In this case, it was my common/uncommon cube again.

Needless to say I was very happy with my deck:

Thursday evening, friends Adam Prosak and Taylor Gunn taught me how to play Cryptozic's Food Fight. The game is essentially a version of War with draft, number modifiers, a ridiculous food theme, and awesome art mixed in. I highly recommend it.

The game also has these round cardboard "mints" used to represent your number of wins in a round. Obviously when Mark Sun entered the hall late I couldn't help myself.

Brillant artistic cropping by Taylor Gunn.

Friday morning I decided to play a little more EDH:

Don't judge me.

At lunch a few friends decided a mixed-set Team Rochester draft was in order. I didn't need much convincing to join in. One free credit card game meal later, we headed back to the dealer hall to obtain our sets.

The rules were simple: $20 maximum budget per player, no Un-sets. Despite a little difficulty trying to find 10+ year old packs, we did manage to find some of the Alara block foil boosters for $6!

After winning the draft everyone headed off to dinner at Fogo de Chao. Sitting down at our table I couldn't help but get a little teary about the absence of good friend Sam Stoddard. The last time I had Fogo'd was with Sam before he landed an internship at WotC that prevented him from attending this year's GenCon. I never visit the salad bar at Fogo, but Sam always likes to indulge in a little salmon and prosciutto. I decided I had to pay tribute.

Here's to you Stod.

With all the gaming, eating, and goofing off, it could have been easy to miss a huge professional Magic tournament happening just feet away in the TCG hall. I managed to snap a shot of the USA battling Team Brazil in the WMC.

Surprisingly, Fogo was not the best meal for me on the weekend. Back at GP Columbus, Sheldon Menery prompted me to visit St. Elmo's/Harry & Izzy's (they share the same kitchen) while I was in Indy. Specifically, I needed to try their shrimp cocktail. It was BDM who clued me in on their prime rib sandwich. Both were indescribably amazing.

So good, I visited again the following day.

Sunday I browsed the main convention hall one last time and stumbled upon this fellow. For those that don't know, this is a Dalek a la Dr. Who. A mutant cyborg with a passion to EXTERMINATE! I heard through the grape vine that this guy was on point all weekend. Apparently a gentleman was photographing the costume exclaiming, "This is so awesome! I never want to leave!" Setting up the Dalek's reply, "That can be arranged."

Best. Cosplay. Ever.

Of course, I also grabbed the obligatory Magic statue photos.

With the convention wrapping up Sunday afternoon a group headed back to one of our hotels to cube a final time. As it turned out, the 18th floor had a great space with a lot more light than your average gaming venue.

Awesome space. Awesome people. What more can you ask for?

Heading into the evening, another round of EDH got started up, including none other than Hall of Fame member, Bob Maher. He absolutely demolished the table in the first game, dealing 60+ damage in a single turn. In the second game I repaid the favor with a turn one Black Vise, turn two Ankh of Mishra. Ultimately Bob still managed to knock out two players but had too little life to stabilize.

Started the weekend with a loss, ended on a win. Brought home more stories than I can count.

Hopefully this is proof enough that GenCon truly is one of the most amazing weekends of the year. Thanks to all of those that I had the opportunity to meet this weekend; who I talked, gamed, and dined with; to those that complimented my work and encouraged me to keep doing it! I means more than you know!

About Me

Eric is a freelance illustrator currently based out of Maryland. He finished his BFA at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC. Email him: eaklug at gmail. Follow him on Twitter: @klug_alters.